Digging Up a Giant Dark Spot - The Problem of Illegal Dumping of Industrial Waste in Aomori and Iwate and the Background of State Support (February 2004)
In the early 2000s, along with Japan's economic stagnation following the collapse of the bubble economy, environmental problems in rural areas were becoming increasingly serious. In particular, the illegal dumping incident that was uncovered on the border between Aomori and Iwate prefectures was etched in people's memories as one of the largest industrial waste pollution in Japan at 876,000 cubic meters. The disposal of this enormous amount of waste was estimated to cost 41.4 billion yen in Aomori Prefecture and 22.1 billion yen in Iwate Prefecture, and it was determined that local finances would not be able to cover the cost.
Against this backdrop, at the end of January 2004, the Ministry of the Environment announced a policy of providing direct government subsidies of 28.7 billion yen as a special measure, with 60% of the total amount to be provided by the national government, including local taxation measures. This was also a turning point in the government's environmental administration, when the government began to thoroughly enforce the responsibility of waste generators and strengthen monitoring, following the revision of the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law in 1999 and the Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society in 2000.
This incident triggered the promotion of stricter regulations on illegal operators, disclosure of information on industrial waste, and transparency of treatment routes, and served as a model for environmental restoration through collaboration between local residents, the national government, and local governments. On the other hand, it also brought to light institutional deficiencies that delayed the discovery of environmental crimes and the difficulty of detecting illegal dumping, and it served as an opportunity to call into question the need for drastic measures.
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